It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Liz Myhill on Wednesday, 5 May.

Liz Myhill came to the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in 1993 as a Research Associate.  She continued her association with DTM, both as a researcher and later as a Visiting Investigator, long after leaving in 1996 for a position as an Adjunct Professor and later Assistant Professor of Science at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.  During her tenure at DTM, Liz worked closely with Staff Scientist Alan Boss on testing their two independent radiative hydrodynamic codes for modeling the collapse of protostellar clouds.  She took the lead on implementing at DTM the FLASH code, an adaptive-mesh-refinement hydrodynamics code that is designed to handle shock fronts.  That code has since been used by the DTM group to show how the Solar System might well have been formed as a result of the impact of a supernova shock front on a dense molecular cloud core.

Liz received her B.S. in Geophysics, Summa Cum Laude, in May 1983 from Texas A&M University, an M.S. in Geophysics and Space Physics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1985, and a Ph.D. in Geophysics and Space Physics from UCLA in 1991.  As a graduate student of William Kaula at UCLA, she shared an office with another Kaula graduate student, David Williams, and this relationship led to their marriage.  Dave graduated first and accepted a postdoctoral position at Arizona State University, forcing Liz to finish her Ph.D. work from Tempe, Arizona, where she joined the Arizona State University Astronomy Group.  After Liz finished her Ph.D., Boss offered her a postdoctoral position at DTM, with the understanding that her husband would have to find a job somewhere in the D.C. area.  Former Director George Wetherill and Boss were surprised to learn that they both thought that a certain Dr. D. R. Williams of Tempe, Arizona, was their mutual top choice for a second postdoctoral position at DTM that year, and even more amazed to learn that this same Dr. D. R. Williams was married to Liz.  For once, the problem of the "two-career marriage" was easily solved when Liz and Dave both became DTM postdoctoral fellows.

At Marymount University's "Rate my Professors" site, one of her students posted "Dr. Myhill was truly a great professor and I'm saddened that she passed away.  I'm definitely honored to have taken her class, she was a true joy and a great teacher!"  Another comment posted in 2009 stated, "One of the best if not the best teachers at MU!  She motivates you to learn, is EXTREMELY helpful, even works out sample problems in class and review questions before the exams.  She made physics so much fun and is always willing to help and make sure that you understand the material.  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND HER."

Liz will be greatly missed by her many former colleagues and friends at DTM, her students at Marymount University, her husband, David (now at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), and their two sons, Samuel and Oliver.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, May 16, at 2:00 p.m. at the Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Marymount University Myhill Fund, 2807 N. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22207.